... He wants to be happy with you!

I don't know if you know this or not, but God answers prayers. News to you? Well let me expound on all the prayers he has answered for me in just the past couple weeks. First of all I have established an amazing group of Christ-following women that love and care for me. Just a few weeks ago I got a 91% on a Calculus exam. I was granted permission to start a Bible study this summer, that I am in the process of writing called Women Waiting 4Pursuit, at Pathways Church(in Appleton, WI) for high school girls. And on a daily basis the Lord is genuinely and truly saturating and quenching my thirst and hunger. And those are just naming a few of the prayers the Lord has answered for me recently. But I implore you, ask me how long I prayed for Christ-following GIRL friends before God answered my call? Two years and nine months. Ask me how long I've been praying, and studying like crazy, for good math test scores? Three months. Ask me how long I've been praying, and working towards, the Lord to be my number one, my all in all? Almost eleven years. God hears our prayers, I promise you. Do you believe me? I hope so. BUT we, as impatient human beings, need to learn to trust in the Lord's perfect and precise timing. "In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid." [Reference: Psalms 56:4.] Wow! So since we continually praise the Lord, and SAY that we hope all we do will glorify His name, we must put our trust in Him. However, it doesn't stop there. Once we trust in Him, that in HIS perfect and precise timing he will answer our call, we can NO LONGER be afraid. Try it. Give your prayers to God and STOP worrying about them. What do you possibly have to lose?

I cannot begin to express my excitement to you about tonight's Deeper at Substance Church. I walked in tonight to a prayer week at Deeper(an hour and a half service for the long-term Christ-follower dedicated to sheer prayer) and I was exhausted and maybe a little stressed with school. I walked in just wondering why I was there and not studying, but as I soon realized God had a purpose for me being there. Before worship even started one of the prayer leaders read us Psalms 100. "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His loves endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."[Reference: Psalms 100:1-5.] Oh my powerful! What a word from the Lord! So as worship started I prayed that the Lord would help me leave everything outside the door and keep the distractions to a minimum, and be sure to keep tonight's worship solely between Him and I. However, as worship started and I tried to get excited as usual I knew tonight wasn't about the lyrics of the worship songs, or screaming my heart out to praise the Lord in thankfulness. So by the second song in, I was on my knees with my head in His Word. I started looking up verses about rejoicing, I wasn't sure why, but lately I have been working on seeking the Lord in the midst of all the blessing the Lord is giving me and in the midst of all my joy. So nothing really hit me in the concordance, but then I started looking up verses on 'harvest'. And I read a verse in John 4, "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest?' I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."[Reference: John 4:35.] The context is that the disciples thought that the Lord would be hungry, but He replied to them, "no, my food, is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work." Wow, crazy isn't it. The Lord continually did what the Father asked of Him no matter his physical state. But that's not even the coolest part! Don't you see though, sometimes we get caught up in all the blessings the Lord is giving us, and all the prayers he is answering for us, that we forget about Him. We recognize that He is the reason for our joy, but we don't put Him first in the times of joy and gladness. And that's what it says in Psalms 100. "Worship the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing(ESV)."[Reference: Psalms 100:2.] Not only does He want us to come to Him during our hardships, suffering, and frustration, but ALSO when we are overjoyed, and when He is working miracles in our lives! He wants us to come to Him because, "we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture."[Reference: Psalms 100:3.] We are HIS! How incredible! We have done nothing to deserve His undying and completely faithful love. How can we not go to Him when He is the one blessing us and making us so joyful? So I challenge you, when life is going great, and the Lord is continually giving you what you need, recognize Him, and spend even more time with Him. I promise you, if you make time for Him your joy won't last only a week.

Psalms 37:4 -- Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

:)

... Letting Go and Letting God...

So I've always wanted to have a place where I can put my thoughts, and be able to refer back to them besides my devotions journal, so I'm gonna try this!

It's been one of those weekends, where you have a lot to do, but simply cannot make yourself do any of it. It's also been one of those weekends where I've been on edge, simply overwhelmed by emotions and frustration, but also a lot of excitement. So since I'm not usually a girl that gets emotional or gets irrational very often, I allow myself a "girl weekend" to simply let my emotions and irritation get the best of me, and try to avoid as many people as possible. Well that didn't exactly happen this weekend. I got to spend some amazing time with my friends, as well as spend a lot more time in The Word, trying to figure out the RIGHT way to deal with these frustrations.

So today I was reading in Isaiah, starting with chapter 9. The very first verse of chapter 9, hit home! "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress." Umm, hello! Me and my "girl weekend" are apparently getting kicked in the rear! It goes on to talk about how "[The birth of Jesus] has enlarged the nation and increased their joy." How amazing! Oh but we're not done yet, "you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor." So what this is all saying is that in the midst of all our "girl weekends", ps. guys have them too, the birth of Jesus Christ, came into these weekends or seasons of our life and increased our joy, and shattered the burdens which were oppressing us! Wow! Then it keeps going, it says, "... every garment rolled in blood[or any garment that was used in battle] will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire." Meaning everything that causes our seasons, or "weekends", of irritation, sadness, despair, or frustration will be used to fuel the fire inside of us. You know how we always wonder why God "allows" bad things to happen to us? Do you think this could be one(of the many) explanations for such a thing? We tend to see everything that is even a little painful as negative, and maybe it is, but can we recognize that maybe God is trying to help us, and teach us through such situations? And I'm sure it's not every time, but a lot of the times I feel like it is the case. [Reference: Isaiah 9:1-7.]

"Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me, may ruin overtake them by surprise--may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin. Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation." [Reference: Psalms 35:7-9.] The context of this Psalm is that David is being pursued by his enemies, by which he did nothing wrong. The pursuit is being, wrongly, led out of jealousy and anger. However, as David is one man against an entire army he is trusting and believing in the power and justification of the Lord Almighty. He is absolutely sure that he will be safe from such an impossible victory but only by The Lord Almighty. "You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and the needy from those who rob them." [Reference: Psalms 35:10.] The Lord is just. From this we NEED to know that when we are following Him, even if the world is against us, and victory seems impossible, He will not let us fall.

Going off of the same psalm, 35 that is, David continues to humble himself before his enemies, and repay their evil with good, repay their hatred and mockery with love, and although their motives are false, and their accusations are preposterous he continues to be humbled and love those who continue to persecute him. He doesn't retaliate, and prove them wrong, instead he asks the Lord to contend for him, and rise to his defense. "Vindicate me in your righteousness, Oh Lord my God." And after asking the Lord for his own reconciliation, he says, "May those who delight in my vindication shout for jay and gladness: may they always say, 'the Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.' My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long." After The Lord reconciles he still does not gloat of those who took enjoyment in his pain and suffering, instead he just praises the Lord. I am forever encouraged. This psalm hits close to my heart. I suffered through a tough high school career, and in the midst of it felt like David. I am not going to say I was completely faultless, but as I walked around as a stranger in my own high school I felt abandoned, and continually hurt by person after person. I wish my approach to such suffering was nearly as righteous as David's. I wish I could have disregarded that which i knew were fallacies, and humbled myself as David did. But I know that I did one thing as David, I turned to the Lord for help, because I had no one. If you don't believe that God will strip you of all you have to get your attention, trust me, he will. And he had to because I wouldn't listen otherwise(that's why we cannot wait to give Him our all, we have to start now). As the Lord did strip me of every friendship and everything that I thought made me happy, I learned to seek happiness and satisfaction in Him, in the ONE who will NEVER let you down. [Reference: Psalms 35:1-28]

:)

2 Corinthians 12:9